1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to outdoor golf courses, specifically to a new course concept and method of playing golf.
2. Prior Art
Conventional golf courses are laid out with the holes following one another in sequential manner to more or less fit well into the terrain of the land on which they are built. They are designed to be played in sequential manner from hole 1 through hole 18 (on an 18 hole course). When players finish playing one hole, there is normally only one nearby tee to go to next, which is the next sequential hole number.
It is commonly known that the main complaint of golfers is the pace of play, which is usually the pace of the slowest group on the golf course. The pace is often 5 hours or more.
This complaint stems from the fact that the holes on conventional courses are designed for and played in sequential order and cannot practically be played in random order. This is because most tee areas are an entire fairway away from other tees or would necessitate crossing over other fairways, which may be in use, in order to reach them. This makes it too time consuming, confusing, dangerous, frustrating, and disruptive to other players, to allow playing the holes in random order. In other words, it would be chaotic. Someone skilled in the art would know that random order of play would not be allowed on a standard golf course on which most holes are occupied by players. Just the occasional nearness of more than one tee area, that may or may not be open, would not be enough to make it practical. Players that are stuck behind a slow group might have to travel the length of many fairways in order to hopefully find an open tee and fairway. That would defeat the purpose of trying to play a faster round of golf.
Most golf courses attempt to alleviate the pace of play problem by having rangers or marshals drive around the course. The rangers try to encourage slower groups to play faster. This has very limited success. Despite their best efforts, the pace of play is often still over 5 hours because of the inability of some groups to play any faster.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,360 to Purdy (1973) shows a golf course arranged radially around a central clubhouse area, made up of several 3 hole sets. This course is designed for the holes to be played sequentially as on a conventional course. It does not have multiple tees accessible after golfers leave each green. It would not be practical to play the holes in random order.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,686 to Trasko (1989) describes a golf course that requires hitting tee shots for 3 separate holes before hitting the second shot on each hole. Each playing group must play sequentially one after the other. Faster groups would have to wait a considerable time for slower groups in front of them.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,819 to Wilk (2000) describes a golf park with one or more golf courses. Each course is comprised of a single fairway with multiple tees and multiple greens. A single group of players plays up and down the one fairway using the multiple tees and greens for a predetermined period of time. If groups play for a normal 4 to 4½ hour time period, only two groups could play each one-hole course in a day. A park with eighteen one-hole courses of this type would have many more greens to maintain than a conventional 18 hole course.
Several compact types of golf courses have been proposed for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,988,105 to Perry (1991), 4,225,136 to Beam (1980), 5,431,402 to Aguilera (1995), 5,265,875 to Fitzgerald (1993), 4,798,385 to Tegart (1989), and 4,145,053 to Healey (1979). These are compact courses, not full-length courses. Although they may reduce the amount of time needed to play and the amount of land needed, they are definitely not like playing golf on a full-length course. They do not provide the experience of playing 18 uniquely designed golf holes, with a variety of different greens, fairways, hazards, and landscaping.